Why 'Ice Age 3' is really for adults Part 1

Ice Age 3 is a masculine mid-life crisis drama disguised as a kiddie cartoon. Tom Huddleston takes a look at some other films which bring adult problems to a pre-teen audience.

 

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The Little Rascals (1922-1944)
Kid-friendly topic: Poverty and gang membership
Cutting a swathe of terror through depression-era Hollywood, the ‘Little Rascals’ shorts were the first to depict kids in anything approaching realistic terms: as vicious, rebellious ne’er-do-wells out for nothing but self preservation and financial gain. A pre-teen precursor to ‘Skins’, if you will, only with less nudity and better jokes.




Yellow Submarine (1968)
Kid-friendly topic: LSD trips
As numerous starry-eyed hippies have pointed out, the psychedelic experience induces a childlike awe, as well as a tendency to make imaginary friends, repeat inane questions and believe Barney the dinosaur is God. Given their track record in fusing the childlike and the drug-induced (‘Yellow Submarine’ and ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ on the same LP, for instance), it’s perhaps unsurprising that The Beatles found a way to open the little ones’ eyes to the magic and wonder of tripping your nuts off.




Robin Hood (1973)
Kid-friendly topic: Armed hippie insurgency
Robin Hood’s Leninist take-from-the-rich, give-to-the-poor philosophy is treated, in this magical Disney version, as the ultimate expression of the hippie dream. Robin and his band of laidback Merry Pranksters are quite happy in their forest commune, until scheming capitalist dictator Prince John comes along and forces them into an armed uprising. Power to the people, right on!




The Black Hole (1979)
Kid-friendly topic: Astrophysics and zombification
A ropey ‘Star Wars’ wannabe it may seem, but there’s a dark presence in Disney’s early ’80s space folly to rival even Darth Vader. His name is Maximillian, seven-plus feet of red-plated, hover-powered, blender-armed death. Added to which there’s the crew of shuffling, living corpses with their mirrored face-plates, a frankly bonkers existential finale and Anthony Perkins being, well Anthony Perkins: enough to make even the meanest playground bully wet the sheets.




Return to Oz (1985)
Kid-friendly topic: Electroshock therapy and the great depression
The original ‘Wizard of Oz’ had a dark edge: the depression landscapes, the creepy flying monkeys and that melting witch. But it’s got nothing on Walter Murch’s berserk belated follow-up, which transformed Dorothy’s winsome ’40s fantasies into outright pre-pubescent psychosis. There are few moments in cinema more terrifying than an early scene involving lightning, leather straps and an EST machine, unless it’s the bit where a room full of severed heads all start screaming…



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